From refuge to resilience: how Mexico’s labour market is transforming lives

“I applied more than 100 times to different vacancies,” Karla said. “When they knew my regularization was in process, I wasn’t considered a candidate.”

Then came the call from FEMSA, a multinational beverage and retail company, and one of Mexico’s largest employers. “It was the best call I ever received. I went from being a number to feeling valued for my talent,” Karla explained.

On her first day, she noticed something small but powerful: on every desk, a flag from the country each colleague called home. “They gave me mine – Venezuela. It made me feel welcome,” said Karla, who is now an Ethics and Human Rights Manager at FEMSA’s Monterrey headquarters.

She would discover that this small gesture reflected a deeper culture at the company – one that would enable her to thrive. “Inclusive environments will always be safe environments where people can develop properly and be success stories.” For Karla, inclusion is more than just a policy – it is a practice that teams and senior management adopt in their everyday working lives.

Conversely, the biggest barrier to inclusion is bias, Karla believes, and removing it is a task that goes beyond individual companies: “When the private sector, government and civil society allow themselves to set aside biases and begin to include and recognize the personality in each individual, very good things start to happen.”

The numbers behind the promise

Karla’s story reflects a wider shift that has gathered pace since Mexico made several pledges at the Global Refugee Forum (GRF) in 2019 to support and include people who have been forced to flee their homes - one of more than 20 pledges made by the country to date. The pledges have created a ripple effect across the economy and reshaped workplaces into engines of inclusion and growth.

In line with the national integration policy led by the Mexican Refugee Commission (COMAR), across the State of Nuevo León, of which Monterrey is the capital, the commitment to welcoming and including refugees is visible from factory floors to corporate headquarters to the State legislature.

As Martha Herrera, Secretary of Equality and Inclusion for the State Government, explained: “They come for different reasons – violence, humanitarian crises. We have people who arrive and who benefit the local economy, who fill jobs that are vacant, who have an impact on our GDP. For me, that is wealth that strengthens our State.”

Mexico’s inclusive local integration policies, paired with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency’s Programa de Integración Local (Local Integration Programme, or PIL) and the private sector’s readiness to open its doors, have given refugees a chance to support themselves and contribute to the communities that host them.

Since 2016, more than 50,000 refugees have found safety and employment in the country. Over 600 companies have hired refugees through programmes like PIL, and their contributions to the economy are tangible: an estimated $15 million in annual tax payments. These figures tell a story of resilience – but behind them are thousands of individual journeys marked by uncertainty, courage and hope.

A new beginning in Monterrey

“I am Haitian. I arrived in Mexico on 16 August 2024,” said Angelet François, 37. The simple recounting of his arrival date masks a long year of uncertainty and waiting in Tapachula, in Mexico’s southern Chiapas State, as he and his family navigated the bureaucracy required to secure permanent residency.

“All that year, back in Chiapas, there wasn’t that much work. And I had that need to work – to help and to protect my family,” Angelet recalled.

In July, with UNHCR’s support through the PIL programme, Angelet moved north to Monterrey. Within two weeks, he was hired by aluminium manufacturer Indalum as a quality inspector in the foundry, finally able to practice his profession as a chemical technician.

“I like everything related to chemistry – it attracts me,” Angelet explained. “Before, I could only teach; now I can experiment and understand. Indalum offered me a golden opportunity.”

Employment has brought more than a paycheck; it’s restored his pride and stability. “It makes me happy when my daughter says, ‘Dad, I need this,’ and I can provide,” he said. Now, Angelet and his wife are saving for a dream – opening a restaurant – proving that, more than survival, integration is about building a future.

In the workplace, he was welcomed. Colleagues received him “with a lot of affection,” he said, and he quickly started helping train other newcomers, including many who were still learning Spanish. His instinct to teach resurfaced: “In an industry like this, defects matter. The fewer the defects, the greater the gains. I help them understand what pure aluminium can handle and the care needed to work with it.”